1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with an improved pig diet designed to enhance the average daily gain (ADG) and carcass characteristics of pigs. More particularly, the invention pertains to an animal feed and corresponding method, wherein the diet contains from about 12% to about 50% by weight of total protein (generally obtained from corn and soy) and at least about 0.25% weight of modified tall oil having a desirable unsaturated fatty acid profile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Swine producers are constantly seeking ways to reduce the amount of time necessary for animals to achieve their market weight. There are numerous monetary incentives for quickly getting an animal to market, the most obvious of which is that, the sooner the animal is sold, the sooner the producer makes a profit off that animal. Other benefits are less obvious to people outside the farming industry. One such benefit is reduced yardage costs. Yardage costs include heating and cooling the building in which the animal is housed, time and equipment involved in cleaning up after the animal, and veterinarian bills and other medical expenses necessary to keep the animal healthy. Clearly, reducing the amount of time necessary to finish an animal can significantly decrease the yardage costs.
The yardage costs associated with raising a pig from farrow to finish is presently about ten cents per day. By simply reducing the number of days by five, the food producer would save fifty cents per pig. Typically, a producer has a limited number of pigs that he or she can house at any given time. By getting a pig to market sooner, the producer can fill that spot with another piglet and can reap the corresponding profit increase. Moreover, in a large hog operation thousands of pigs may be finished per cycle, and hence, saving fifty cents per pig results in a substantial cumulative benefit for the producer. This benefit continues to grow with each day that is deducted from the time necessary to ready the pig for market.
One product on the market which is used to supplement pig diets is Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). CLA is a collective term used to describe several forms of linoleic configuration. Conjugated linoleic acid has either the cis or trans acid, or both, located on carbons 9 and 11, 10 and 12, or 11 and 13. It is thought that the cis 9, trans 11 form of CLA is the biologically active form which can be incorporated into phospholipids in the body. Modified tall oil and the Tonalin.TM. CLA 60 contain a similar concentration of this cis 9, trans 11 fatty acid. Therefore, the differences in pig performance observed from feeding MTO must be related to other conjugated fatty acids or compounds contained within MTO. It has been shown that the feeding of CLA to laboratory animals improves the rate of gain and the efficiency of gain and decreases fat deposition (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,072 to Cook et al.). However, CLA acts to decrease the average daily feed intake (ADFI) which leads to reduced caloric intake by the pig. This reduction inhibits the ADG of the pig. By inhibiting the ADG, pigs whose diets are supplemented with CLA take longer to attain their market weight than those pigs whose diets are not supplemented with CLA. Thus, while CLA has known advantages, its drawback in lowering the ADG of finishing pigs are significant.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a feed supplement which decreases the number of days required to bring a pig to its market weight while retaining the advantages of CLA. Pigs consuming this supplement should have desirable carcass characteristics, including a decrease in the percentage of drip loss, when compared to pigs who have not consumed the supplement. Furthermore, this supplement should be inexpensive and readily available.